Artist Melissa Werpy is a recent transplant to the Alexandria Lakes area. Well known for her mural/decorative painting and works in oil, acrylic, and pastel, she now focuses on the ceramic arts. Her original creations, thrown on the wheel or hand-built, provide a unique 'canvas' for works in clay. Melissa creates unique handmade pottery with color and animation. The Studio gardens are a constant source of subject matter, and often you will find Melissa with a pot in hand, sketching or carving clay in her garden. Visiting creatures are also "captured in clay" — Hummingbirds, Dragonflies, Pileated Woodpeckers, Wrens, and Butterflies.

Melissa's works are "committed to color"—bright colors, playful imagery, and local influence play together on her creative surfaces. Her works are all inspired by nature—land, water, floral and garden imagery, lights, and shadows. European influence also shows up in her work, having spent seven years living and raising a family in Brussels and Paris. 

For Melissa, clay has opened up another avenue of creative exploration, offering new ways to express and communicate favorite images and inspirations. A long-time resident of the Twin Cities, Melissa now has her home and studio on the shores of Lake Miltona.